The Blessed Seventy
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If the head of the house loves peace, your peace will rest on that house; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for workers deserve their wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sack- cloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
The seventy returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to over- come all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” – Luke 10:1-24
God cannot lie. He will come again to claim His own; those that believe His Word. God cannot change. As He has done in times past, so will he do again. He will allow those who worship him to be transported through the troubles to come. He will keep those who worship him as a witness to the cause of the troubles to come. The prophets of old remained throughout the destruction of the people and suffered along with those people so that the people, all of the people then and since, would have the witness of the righteousness of God. God does, and will, raise up witnesses to “cry in the wilderness” and “make straight a highway for His Son.”
From the going forth of the decree of a Savior until this present day God has never left his people nor forsaken them. He has sent his faithful witnesses to search out and protect His sheep. Wolves have gone out as well to scatter the flock. Since the birth, life, death and resurrection; just as it was in the days of the monarchs of Israel, the people of God have been scattered by false teachers and false prophets (wolves in sheep’s clothing; see Jude chapter 1), they have wandered from the “strait and narrow” path of the pure Word of God.
Today, God is sending His messengers to “call His people back to the strait path of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. There will be a weaning before the gleaning. There will be those who stand strong on the rock while so may more fall away. The falling away will be not one from a cliff, but from the slow shift of sand, away from the shore. Yet, when the storm comes the sand will be moved far more quickly than one can imagine, or believe. The final witnesses will prophesy in Jerusalem in the “tribulation” prior to the final judgment of God. Before them, those chosen are preparing the way for the Messiah for His return and the ministry of those final prophets to close prophecy and usher in the Golden Age of God, the new heaven, new earth and the new Jerusalem to rule over it (Revelation chapters 21,22).
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